Omaha daily bee., 1887-11-12
Pen Pictures of the Approach of
oblivion and Its CHASTITY NIachin-
ery-Greeting Death With
Songs and CHEEKY
FarcwelIs.
The Execution.

CHICAGO, Nov. Ill, Canute II. Matson,
sheriff of Cook county Illinois, do hereby
certify that on the 1lth day of November, A.
d. 1887, between the hours of 10 o'clock in
the forenoon and O'Clock in the afternoon
of that day, at II :57 O'Clock in the forenoon
Of said day, in the common Jail of said
county, l did, as said sheriff, duly execute
August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George
Engel and Albert II. Parsons in conformity
with the sentence of the criminal court of
said county of Cook, in pursuance of the
order and iud gment of the supreme conrt Of
Illinois, for the northern grand DIVISION
made and entered of record on the l4th day
of September, 1887, and in accordance with
the statutes of the state of Illinois IN such
cases made and provided.
[Sgnedl CANuTE II. MATsoN.
eve, the undersigned who are not rela-
tives Of the above named August Spies or
the others. hereby certify that we have wit
messed the execution by hanging of said
August Spies and others in the above certif-
cate set forth"
are appended to the solemn declarations
above and with them form the essential pub
lie record of the death of the Haymarket
murdcrers.
MORE UTTER CONTEMPT or DEATH
was probably never shown by any four men.
From the first moments of the morning till
the day closed upon them they would not see
shadow of ignominy or the hereafter. Tho
seven hours from dawn until the hour passed
to eternity were crowded full of such events
stirring as day of battle. Beginning with
the fiat refusal in the very teeth of death to
accept word of comfort from the reverend
minister of religion, one Of their number,
Fischer, sang to the Jail and the world the
song Of the French revolution the famous
"Marscllaise." Then, with seemingly not u
thought of the dread massacre at the Hay
market, the four prepared for their march
toward the gallows almost as if it We're q
pleasant holiday excursion. Extraordinary
as were the scenes presented at this moment
II was not till the first man stepped out upon
the gallows that the great climax came
Tho two hundred and more writers with
nimble fingers, waiting to spread the news to
the farthcst bounds of the earth, had almost
TO n man been gathered in the north corridor.
of the Jail. There for just an hour they
were imprisoned in front of the dull scafrold
Not many Of the two hundred who
We're present that did not sit uncasily upon
his chair, thinking rapidly of the coming
doom OF four fellow-creatures, or perhaps
even more Of the vague possibility Of the Jail
and all within its walls being blown to the
blue sky by anarchistic dynamite. Tho long
hour was not yet half completed when, in the
tail's distant south corridor, unseen and un-
heard by the main body of reporters, big
Sheriff Matson at II ;23 u. M, accompanied
= by grim old Jailor Folz, manly looking Rev.
DR., Bolton and a score Of stalwart deputies,
stepped up close TO the open door of August
Spies cell preparatory to
READING THE DEATH WARRANT
to the four condemned men. Twenty minutes
were occupied in this trying formality, rem
dcred doubly an ordeal by the horrible silence
prevailing and by the sckening odors coming
from the room where lay the bloody corpse
Of their comradc, Louis Lingg, the suicide
Directly above, In their cell doors, appeared
the dark boards and darker eyes Of the two
committed anarchists, Samuel Ficlden and
Schwab. Sheriff Matson, with quick breath
and heart beating high, carried unsteadily in
his hand the documents ordering him to carry
out the sentence Of the law, They were written
on typewriters and all duly attosted. The
huge iron door swung back and Spies stepped
firmly forward in front of his guard to lister
70 the reading Of the document. With hi.
les6 Ragsd aud sughtly inclined forward The